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Empires rise and fall on the Yulan Continent. Saints, immortal beings of unimaginable power, battle using spells and swords, leaving swathes of destruction in their wake. Magical beasts rule the mountains, where the brave – or the foolish – go to test their strength. Even the mighty can fall, feasted on by those stronger. The strong live like royalty; the weak strive to survive another day.

This is the world which Linley is born into. Raised in the small town of Wushan, Linley is a scion of the Baruch clan, the clan of the once-legendary Dragonblood Warriors. Their fame once shook the world, but the clan is now so decrepit that even the heirlooms of the clan have been sold off. Tasked with reclaiming the lost glory of his clan, Linley will go through countless trials and tribulations, making powerful friends but also deadly enemies.

I am hard to please. My taste are the same for most.
But I can endure some badly written novel.
I got a lot of time to read and have read a lot of titles.
This is to let you know that I got a lot to compare with against this novel.

And what I can tell about this novel is, that this is what fantasy and cultivation is about.
Read along as MC cultivates and surpass the known to the unknown and becomes a legend.

Goal-driven. All I can say about... more>> the works of IET is that each Main character he develops has a goal.
Not many has a goal as high as IET's Trilogy (?) (Coiling, Stellar, DE (?))

Anyway, My point is this. If you have not read IET's works yet. Try some. You might find it to your liking. Just keep in mind that this is a road to eternity, so lacking some worldly affairs are understandable, You put yourself in their shoes and understand that as the time goes by, some things are really not that important. <<less

I liked the main story. Basic model while going to other realms to achieve certain goals which only each of those realms have.

Powers

This is kind of a gripe. There weren't many powers for the main character

... more>>

Spoiler

For instance, he mainly trains in Earth element, which only has 6 moves which he can fuse to create new moves (Eventually fuses 5 together). But, he also had Wind and Fire elements but never used them as much. In fact, he never used fire and only fused like 4 of the 9 wind moves (which he fuses 2 each to form to new moves). Later, he gets Water but never really uses it either. My biggest problem is he becomes a 4-way mutate (able to fuse moves from different elements together) in Book 19. Yet, he only uses a fused move in the very last chapter which is only 2 books later.

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Love

It's never specified why his wife fell for him. At the same time, she rises in power but not the natural way with talent. She also doesn't fuse any of her element. The only good thing is she doesn't die and she's constantly mentioned/seen throughout the story.

CD has a very special place in my heart, which is why I'm also a bit bias towards it, being one of the first Xianxia I read.

This is an amazing piece to begin with if you're new to Xianxia, reason being that it's a complete translation, no need to wait a day, or week for a new chapter. Just binge through it all.

What really makes this one great is the relationships the MC has with different characters, which just helps flesh out the personality of the MC. This story should've... more>> been a bit longer in my opinion, to focus a bit more on certain characters, because this story suffers greatly from ignoring certain character for quite some time, until they become necessary for the story again, which is a bit sad, because many of them has been a great part of the story, until they're not. It makes it feel a bit rushed.

The world, the adventures, everything is extremely well written, it's such an amazing joy to read, and you just wish you could experience something like it while reading it, it's simply amazing.
CD has its flaws, but I'm uncertain if it's because I'm bias toward it, or that it's just simply that good, that I gave it a 5/5. The non-bias part in me would like to rate it at 4/5, but in the top tier of 4s, because I feel like there's the possibility it could've been even better with more chapters, exploring characters, adventures and romance more.

UPDATE:

So I've read CD again, for the second time. Why should you read this? Because I Eat Tomatoes, the author is simply a genius at tugging at your heart strings, and making up likable characters and creating an amazing world, which shares the same universe as some of his other works.
Of course reading it a second time, you notice some of the flaws.

In general all of I Eat Tomatoes works revolves around "Luck" which can be noticable in CD quite a bit, but I didn't find it overly so, except for a few cases, where luck simply is the only thing keeping the MC alive, but I can let it slide, since I can't come up with a better way of making such a rich and interesting story to begin with.

Also, the fighting becomes more or less the same at a point in the story, but the Author has still done a good job at keeping it interesting, but it does become predictable as it gets closer to the end.
The most serious "flaw" this novel faces, though, is still the abandonment of characters, as most are really well written and introduced and to just forget about them is really the big flaw of CD. Getting a conclusion of what happened to some characters at the end would've been the cherry on the top for this novel.

This is still one of the best written novels out there, and I can't recommend it enough. <<less

Coiling Dragon (Panlong) is honestly.. my first Chinese Novel. People regard their first novel as 'The one that made them read more', but it wasn't the case for me.

First, I'll start with good points of Coiling Dragon:... more>>

Spoiler

1. CD is a good novel for beginners. Unlike other Novels like ISSTH and TMW, this novel doesn't use 'Qi' or any chinese power leveling. In return, the story uses our typical Four Elements + Other Add-in to rank their powers.
2. CD has a very good initial setting. The MC, Linley is a scion of Baruch Clan, which is known for their Dragon Bloodline. He was branded as a failure after a test, but all of these changed when he acquired the *tada* Coiling Dragon Ring. There comes Grandpa Doehring. He became his teacher and taught him ways how to improve his strength and to obtain a way how to activate his Dragon Bloodline.
3. CD has a good 'Early' Romance setting. The part when Linley chose Delia over Alice is the highest point of their romance, In my Opinion.
4. For people who likes to read long novels, this is the novel for you. It is the first one of the Xianxia Genre to be fully translated. The quality of translation is good also.
5. If you like astronomically large numbers, the Author likes to give those kind of numbers.

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The bad points of Coiling Dragon

Spoiler

1. Coiling Dragon, in a sense, has a very ridiculous PLOT ARMOR. Like IET's Novels, ALL coincidences happen to him, as if the author inserts them just to make a new objective. His Luck is way past the luck of other lucky protagonist, that you'll think his survival along the story was due to luck. Yes, he is hardworking, but much of his strength comes from luck.
2. Romance and Family setting is also ridiculous. There is a part where the MC leaves his family for almost 10 years and just to see his son and daughter grown up. Yes, he is a peerless expert, but he is a bad father.
3. Battle scenes are very annoying. If you want to describe their battle scenes, It looks like two saiyans fighting together. You won't see anything because of their very fast movement. All the audience can say is 'How fast!' and 'Such Strength!'
4. CD's plot is just confusing. Many characters are introduced, but almost the same number was forgotten.
5. In short, CD is a story with OP MC that flaunts 'MY MC's Soooo OP that...' It's that kind of story.\\

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All in all, CD is good for new novel readers in it's early parts, but there are MUCH BETTER Novels out there in translation. If you want uninterrupted reading, this one's for you. (If you can handle the repetitivene plot of story) <<less

Disappointing ending. Actually everything which involved the higher realms was disappointing.
MC finds love and loyalty to a clan who he never knew (and they were rude to him as well) when he ascend to higher realm. That arc was so frustrating that it killed me.

The ending was abrupt. Author didn't even gave a satisfactory closure to the series.
All over you can read the series but don't expect too much.

Ok, Like Soooooooooooooooo many other people, CD was one of the first light novels ive ever read, and was actually my first Xianxia. Its completed, and was 100% certified awesome, really its like the DBZ of Xianxia.

It is a VERY recommended choice for anyone wanting to step into reading xianxia or wuxia as it has already been completely translated (top notch translations too).

This story has everything, from magic to cultivation to dragons to romance to bro's to immortals to comedy and it starts with him as a kid, with the... more>> story progressing into him becoming the ultimate badass. I cannot stress how much people should read this, heck you should be ALREADY reading this.
I wont dive down into any details, cuz that'll be spoilers and too long of a post.

I give this Novel: 5/5
Recommoneded reads:
I Shall Seal The Heavens (Another MUST READ)
Against the Gods
Stellar Transformations (same universe pretty much a sequel of sorts)
Desolate Era (shared universe)

To be honest, you should try most things from I Eat Tomatoes (and Er Gen as well) <<less

A pretty good story with a couple arcs that are rather solid in particular, and a few noteworthy characters (namely Bebe). Worth reading if you have too much time on your hands, but it only really stands out in that there are so few modern Asian epics fully translated online.

It takes a while to get going, and still is often somewhat bland later. Though the concluding arc tied a lot of things together really well, most of the rest of the story didn't feel planned out. The MC gains weapons,... more>> items, and skills that get largely forgotten about, and it lacks delicious moments of the hero truly exploiting his advantages in the manner that you'd see in Against the Gods, Tales of Demons and Gods, etc.

Later ideas, like giving everybody clones, put a lot of hard limits on what could happen and lowered the narrative tension. You know the MC's clones will never die, because it would permanently weaken the hero in a series that is all about advancing through the ranks of power. Magic Plot Crystals turn people into gods, but they also define a person's absolute skill level, and why write yourself into a corner that way? That whole idea was essentially a poorly-conceived promise to the reader that the entire supporting cast would fade into obscurity.

The series' approach to cultivation was interesting before that, though. It was more academic in feel; instead of being a thing of going from level 9 to level 10, it was more like being a scientist trying to discover a new particle or some such thing. These people would first spend years as a child and young adult learning things from the cultivation world's equivalent of an educational system, and then they would push upon the limits of what anyone in the world knew in their field, and would start gaining personal insights into their Law that nobody else had found before. People in the same field of study could fight each other to exchange insights, for the benefit of both people hoping to unlock the mysteries of the world, sort of like reading and publishing in a peer-reviewed journal... and then the series stepped beyond the bounds of its world and it became a story about gods evolving into super gods and it totally lost that appealing framework. Ah well.

The MC experiences little in the way of hardship with the exception of a few arcs, and often has the protection of powerful figures. To put it plainly, his life's too easy. You can do a power-fantasy novel where the hero's better than anyone and still make it tough on him: the perfect example of this is "The Name of the Wind", which everyone should read if they aren't restricting themselves to xianxia only.

CD also falls short of ever feeling romantic. We're told that the MC's love interest is his other half and that he thinks about her constantly, but that's all: we're just told it, we don't see it. In practice she barely figures into the story at all. Finally, the story likes to do big time-skips, passing right over what could be really core moments of the MC's life, such as experiencing school life, or raising his own children. To skip over life itself to hurry toward more powering-up is inexplicable--those are the things that give the cultivation meaning in the first place. <<less

This is the novel which got me hooked in this genre. So it one of the favorite for me on a personal level. The whole story has a certain flow to it. It never feels forced and I like power levels of this story the best as they are quite simple but presented in a way that it makes power-ups amazing. This is a recommended novel.

Coiling Dragon has its ups, but an unfortunate amount of downs. Some of the fundamental problems of weekly release and the necessity for greater power scaling rear their head here: characters left behind and weak foreshadowing. This hurts this novel in later chapters more than other xianxia I've read because of CD's focus on characters' relationships and spirituality in the pre-deity section of the novel. What is, for a while, an organic system of growth that is highly personal and related to mentality and experience ends up becoming a power-gaming,... more>> RPG skill tree on the road to becoming a paragon. Characters given more than a passing mention and positive fortunes are reduced to scenery or obsolescence. This makes the final section of the novel somewhat depressing as a wholesome journey degenerates into deific MMA. Coiling Dragon also suffers from a weakly set up ending and time skips that are treated trivially.

Despite these flaws, there are reasons why it's still worth reading. A quaint and picturesque beginning, wholesome middle, a core group of entertaining and likable characters, and a sense of a wide world that isn't held in suspense based upon the behest of the main character. A bit more of the Wuxia spirit is present in Coiling Dragon for broad swaths of the novel, and the baleful god behavior tends to be less present.
All in all, despite a pleasant journey the experience is ultimately blunted by an unconvincing latter portion of the novel. <<less

This was the first Chinese novel that I ever read, and as being such will probably be the best in my mind. Even though looking back on it there were some inconsistencies and the last volume felt very, very rushed. Also because of CD I was introduced to a world that I send countless hours in and enjoyed, rather than doing my uni work, but defiantly worth it!

Coiling Dragon (hence CD) was my first LN. It started out pretty good with introducing our MC, and as the chapters went, I got to experience all the emotions the MC had. Every time there was something exciting or even just a bit interesting, it made me wonder; what would happen next? What will the MC do now?

As the time goes on the story gets better and better. When you think the character has reached the pinnacle of strength, that's when you figure out that he has just started to... more>> walk on the path of cultivation.

Sure, there are always some moments in the story that aren't the best, or could be better. You will meet some of these moments, even though rare, but it all pays out in the end. At least for me when I finished the story, all I was left with was positive things.

As a Xianxia reader, there are many stories I have liked or disliked and many stories I have regretted reading. But only CD have I wished to forget, only to read it all again without knowing what's around the next corner.
CD is a story I recommend to all sorts of readers and especially for new readers. It's a story with lots of twists and turns, and will always keep you entertained. It's also one of the rare finished translated novels, so you never need to wait for chapters. <<less

Coiling dragon was my first chance to discover xianxia novels, a world that at that time was quite strange and didn't impress me. Little did I know that after reading the first few volumes I would be so hooked on xianxia novels that I couldn't start reading anything beside it. For me, CD is and will always be a lucky encounter that changed my life. At the time of this review, I finished reading it the third time, so I can say one thing. Its flaws will never be able... more>> to make this story less awesome.

Like many others I could start debating about the characters and the events. But in the end, as long as you have not read it and you are not easily influenced by other people opinions, give it a try. You might not regret this. Because of this, I will only mention a few of its good traits, and only a bad one:

First, we have Linley. Our protagonist which can be considered unique when comparing it to other novels, but the same when comparing it to the rest of IET novels. Even so, if its your first time, the first volume will make your blood boil with expectations as you how Linley slowly progresses towards his dream.

Second, world building, the difference between IET and many others is that the word depicted by IET is astonishingly huge. From the mortal continent and countries to the divine one, they are described in great detail.

Third, conflicts. The conflicts are not always spectacular and also they are rarely good enough to be remembered. What is surprising is that these conflicts don't follow the same pattern each time. Even though some conflicts are linked to each other, the story will not progress only by inciting secondary conflicts because the protagonist started killing left and right.

Fourth, the power system. The cultivation base resembles the other novels, but the understanding of the laws is something that went astray from the norm but gave me at least a very nice surprise.

These few things are not that impressive, but they are certainly something that for someone that has barely started reading xianxia novels will become a priceless memory.
.
.
.
Lastly... the bad thing.. which becomes very clear if you read it again from the beginning, is.. romance. Sincerely, IET couldn't understand why rushing the romance since its starting volumes could end badly. This is the only bad thing. <<less

A solid 4. Only reason why it didn't get a five is because I wish the ending was fleshed out a little more, and their were some boring parts. But over all, I enjoyed this novel immensely. It made me think outside of myself and see things through a different set of eyes. I love Linley and Bebe. People get mad because the other characters are "one" dimensional or characters disappear, but fail to realize that this whole story is Linley's perspective, and sometimes Bebe. So of course other characters... more>> aren't fleshed out, I mean do you know that much about your acquantices and casual friends or even families? Also if you move about, do you keep in contact that much with people you left? You can't do that in real life for a couple of decades, let alone for a millennium. And his story was enough for me.I enjoy the growth to Op-dom. I didn't mind the random bouts of luck, because even in real life luck plays a big roll in success. Just look how many people try to be famous, their really is only a small % that actually make it, and an even a smaller% that are really popular. Why? Because lack of talent? No, there are plenty talentless celebs. It's luck people. Having the right style and look, at the right place right time, in the right time period. Same in this story, but Linley works a million times harder before luck comes his way. I recommend this novel, it is a slow starter though. Not as slow as ISSTH, but the story builds his character for 100+ chapters. Any way I love this story. <<less

CD is my first love in a sense and hard to fault it. The best thing about it is, that it starts off very western fantasy and slowly, but surely the 2 styles merge. The way I visualize it for people it has the schooling/mysteries of Harry Potter, the fighting and power ups and epic battles of DBZ, and then rounded out with the grand adventure of LOTR. AT least that’s the best way I try to explain it to people. I think it might be the best chinese novel... more>> to start off with if you’re new to this storytelling type of fantasy fiction. The translation quality is top notch and that goes a long way. P <<less

I'd say CD is a decent passing time. One of the good parts is MC is mostly sensible and clever-headed, sometimes inexperienced but realize this weakness and strength. Another pleasant aspect is the concept of face where those with much stronger power won't lower themselves to kill others unless circumstances, and there is no 'I hate you so I grab to threaten/kill your whole family' either.

However I can't get my head into it at all. I don't feel excited, moved, or have any anticipation towards the MC's development after the... more>> first few volumes. I ended up skimming through while having this shallow feeling.
Besides the few usual antagonists being flauting (background) power 'You dare to kill me? You can't kill me or you'll regret it' and stuff, the interactions between characters are sometimes bizarre and have me baffled, the training and techniques are vague and glossed over resulting in bland battles (or maybe I've read too many cultivation novels before this one that I set my bar too high). Plot? Long multiple spoler rants ahead)

Spoiler

Linley goes to school? More like meeting, eating and drinking with his good bros, training by himself in the mountains, goes to class in one or two sentences but no one knows what he actually learn in class. He goes out into the wilderness training and killing while still being a student, then goes back and goes out some more until he gets powerful enough to leave school.

First venture, Linley meets a classmate with few others. Me: oh group train! But nope. Bandits kill some (including that classmate killed by the boss). Linley kills all bandits leaving the boss and flees even though his beast Bebe could have killed that bandit boss??? Me: oh author uses this to abandon group train plot, cause that boss never mentioned again. And later Linley encounters corpses killed by human and wonders why human kill human and realize: greed is so terrible. Ummmm didn't your classmate (and yourself almost) got killed by human just now also? Why you only ponder about that now?

While in school, Linley dates a girl and gets all heart-broken by her (cause she out of nowhere avoids him and goes out with her childhood friend). Then Linley makes a breakthrough in power thanks to that heartbreaking exp while his good bro tries to make the girl's life miserable. Also in the following events she encounters sh*tty situations and has to ask Linley for help while her guy (who actually genuinely loves her) is made into a bad guy. All was so over the top that I actually thought the author has personal issue with this kind of failed relationship.

When little Linley was all enthusiastically "I want to be a magus!!!" but when grown he automatically is a magus by keep growing his spiritual level, learns skills by reading once and focus on his warrior power instead. Magus ability is rarely used and easily falls out of importance in the first 10 or so books, then in higher level they conveniently becomes 'profound laws' to train for deities.

Relationship building and interactions? Eat chat laugh occasionally help each other out over time and we have a deep relationship (asides from family love). Romance? The main girl fell for him since tiny teen (interactions barely/not described at all as for why she fell for him) then waited 10 years for her chance and bam love. Marriage? Wedding day is big guests visiting and the pair entertaining guests. If that's all there is to my wedding I'd kick everyone out the street and slap myself out of love.

Linley also accidentally releases a powerful magical beast Dylin who led hordes of beasts to destroy cities later (and this accidentally rescues Linley from jail, haha karma). The beasts also destroys Linley's hometown and kills everyone there. Later Linley and Dylin becomes good friends.

Where there is trouble or special event (especially those related to Linley's acquaintances) there is Linley just in time to solve it! An antagonist says something like "This Linley is everywhere" and I cry because dude someone finally gets it. I feel like I'm reading a xuanhuan version of detective Conan.

I think I need to stop now my mind is getting boggled.

PS: I think the later part where Linley goes to higher plane is where the story gets better, or maybe I'm just numb to it.

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Completion thought: The ending is a little weak. I'm glad I read this novel after Stellar Transformation, that's why I'm able to enjoy the ending a bit more.

Spoiler

Funny how the final antagonist actually got the right idea about breaking space and stuff, but in the end unable to execute it.

What can I say that hasn’t been said from other reviewers here. This novel is the very first novel which introduced me to the world of wuxia. The world building of this novel is awesome. The story was epic and the way they depict the power levels and elements and stuff creative even though romance takes a back seat in I eat tomatoes novels. The last but nonetheless ren (RWX) was the reason which made this series interesting due to constant releases thank you and hope that u start translating... more>> another series and my wishes for IET for writing this novels and looking forward with you’r other works. <<less

Yeah... I don't have much to say that haven't been said. Starts good, quickly goes out of rail and the train keeps moving downwards until it finally goes over a hill for a big explosion of "fck no". Horrible developments and even more horrendous ending. This is one of those novels that would only get 3/5 or 3.5/5 stars if it wasn't because of all the people with their glorified memories and sentimental views. Half or more of the reviews state that it was the novel that started them off,... more>> of course it will seem good when you have no experience in reading other novels and then when you do and come back to review it, you will think it was better than it is, because it was a hell of a first experience, kinda like when you play a game when young that you remember being awesome but later on when you try as an adult, it turns out to be sh*t and is best never touched again.

There's so many novels that are properly good out there, more and more are getting completely translated. If you read this trainwreck, go for at most the first dozen or so volumes. Oh, and stop giving biased bullsh*t reviews just because it was one of your starting novels, it's really enough to piss one off. <<less

The story was a bit long winded and followed a repetitive route most of the time. The resolved mysteries didn't live up to the reveal and the final enemy seemed to have literally appeared out of nowhere. Most of the time the characters felt more like cardboard cut outs and regarding the romance apart from one instance the rest of the interactions between the MC and the love interest felt quite bland and emotionless. The western feel to the story was a nice touch and any insight related discoveries were... more>> usually quite nice to read. To summarise, Coiling Dragon is a nice way to pass the time when you're bored but that's all that it's really good for. <<less

I personally think that this is the most epic work of art I have ever come in contact with. I may not have read much Chinese novels yet but I have read many other kinds of books and watched many kinds of movies, but Panlong is by far the one that eched itself the deepest into my brain. Normally when you read or watch a story, you will after a few weeks or months start to forget the smaller details and only remember the awesome parts. But even now after... more>> more than half a year I still remember small details and names of character. I can easily describe each and every part of the story in chronological order. While in other novels after this long, it isn't even every time I remember the MC's name.

This novel was so good at describing events and places, that I often remember places in the story and have clear images in my mind, so clear that I almost wonder if I really read a novel or if it was a manga or maybe even a movie. The novel makes every part count, there are no parts in the story where you will find yourself bored and skipping some minor details.

(this is my first review I ever done on anything, I usually never even read reviews so I'm not familiar with how they are usually written so it is probably kind of weird) <<less

I enjoyed it. It was a long ride, but somehow, I’m glad that its over. Though the ending was rushed.

The plot was decent, just did not have much to do with the coiling dragon ring, or coiling dragons for that matter. A lot of sh*t that seemed important was tossed aside.
... more>>

Spoiler

For an instance, at the beginning the skills of the mages were described so greatly, I thought for sure Linley would use some awesome skills like the world protector, but in the end, none of that happened.

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Other than that, the story is great, the protagonist had a small personality, as said below, he is not ruthless, not that kind, just a little less than most Xianxia protagonists, which worked well for the story I guess.

I liked most of the concepts such as the world of deities, embodiments of the edicts and laws, the cultivation tree which, surprisingly:

Spoiler

He did not become an Overgod and a new concept was introduced to a rushed ending; he became more than the edicts itself.

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Another glaring flaw was the surprising lack of anecdotes. His romance was also like this, we basically had a very vague idea of the conversations that took place between Linley and the heroines, it was fine at the beginning though. This may also be due to the excessive amounts of time skips.

Spoiler

Linley had children, but we hardly got to see Linley, as a father, interact with them. Before we knew it, Linley’s children grew up to be boxes or exceedingly bulky men, the time skips went for Bebe’s child as well, whom they were there for (why was that part skipped). Same went for his little brother, male characters in general seems to be very bulky. I’m surprised the children did not resent him for not being there most of the time; ten years time he cultivates.

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I guess this one really tried to display the relations of fraternity, but somehow, it just doesn’t seem satisfactory, like they weren’t depicted that intimately compared to Japanese novels. Chinese novels are better off going for Harems instead of fraternity or kinship.

Despite the glaring flaws and the axed ending, which also ended without any anecdotes, or much narratives, This was very cool. <<less